


Striving for forever

by Oaklin



Series: Forever Everything [56]
Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Crude jokes, Discussions of violence, Friendly banter, I mean, Injury Recovery, Kayfabe Compliant, M/M, Mentions of Injury Mismanagement, Offensive Humor, Swearing, aggressive affection, fat jokes, fuckin' Eddy/Excess out of goddamn nowhere, it is really weird, obligatory Kevin Steen warning, stealth romance, stealth shipping, the fuck is up with that?, this series is like it's own fucking person at this point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-16 13:27:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11253900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oaklin/pseuds/Oaklin
Summary: A backstage conversation about foolish boys and their lofty dreams.Or, in which four tiny idiot baby wrestlers get their legs under them and learn to fly.





	Striving for forever

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello!
> 
> So, was anyone else's week as crappy as mine? Because I hope the hell not. Forewarning, between some unfortunate irl drama, and some hellacious heat waves intermixed with (admittedly very pretty) thunderstorms that keep knocking out the power in my area, I cannot promise that the fanfic will be on time every week. I will be posting though, unless something REALLY fucked happens, which is a slim possibility. Also, Let's Walk Together, Not Apart will be updated whenever I get the next chapter ready for viewing. It takes a lot longer than this series ^.^
> 
> Anyway. I have a bunch of boring irl stuff to do today, so enjoy this fic while I'm slogging away! Someone needs to be having a good time in my place. Well, unless you can't stand mean sounding friendly bants. Excess and Kevin got carried away, and poor Sami was so confused ;)

“You sure your arm is up for it, man?”

Sami glances up, taking in the thinly veiled concern on Excess’ face as he crowds Eddy up against a set of lockers, prodding at his shoulder with a deep frown on his face.

Eddy rolls his eyes, flexing the fingers of his previously severely injured arm and elbowing Excess’ in the ribs.

“I’m fine dude, relax,” Excess still looks unconvinced, his brow creased in clear worry. Eddy shoots Sami a put upon look, curling the fingers of his convalescing arm into a fist and planting it against Excess’ sternum, leveling the worry-wort with a steady stare.

“When did you become such a mother hen? I had to watch your dumb ass go three rounds with Kevin last week. How about we talk about all those bruises I can see blooming across the both of your willowy faces?”

Excess reaches up, seemingly subconsciously, rubbing at his fading black eye.

“Okay, maybe I’m being paranoid. But bruises are a little different than a fucked shoulder, Eddy.”

Eddy sighs, lowering his hands and leaning in, pressing up against Excess’ in some sort of strange, armless body-slam hug that makes Sami stifle a snort as he witnesses it.

(The hell are they even-)

-It would probably be best to just leave that alone-

Fair.

“I’ll be fine, you big baby. I’m just fucking glad to get back in the goddamn ring again, jesus. You guys know how much I missed you assholes?” Eddy says, planting his hands on the table behind him and hoisting himself up onto it, dangling his feet over the side and smiling brightly at Sami.

Sami smiles back and opens his mouth, but his reply is cut off when Kevin speaks up for the first time, from his position on Sami’s left, where he had been quietly leaning against the wall with his arms crossed until now.

“I don't understand why the hell you missed _us_. You were still hanging around, like the washed up old fuck that you are,” Kevin grumbles, unfolding himself from his curled position, unlacing his tightly crossed arms and sitting upright, rolling his neck and shoulders as he moves.

Excess snorts, dropping down into a crouch and rifling through the ratty duffel bag that he had laid at his feet, “Always with the endearing words of encouragement. What would we ever do without your bright presence in our life, Steen?”

Eddy laughs, leaning back on the table and lazily swinging his legs, giving Kevin a sardonic smile.

“That means you missed me, right Kevin?”

Kevin doesn’t reply just snorts derisively and pulls a roll of tape out of Sami’s duffel, kicking the bag away after he has retrieved the item. Sami shares a look with Eddy, their eyes meeting and rolling in sync as Excess rummages through his bag, getting kicked in the shoulder periodically by Eddy, though Excess either doesn’t care or doesn’t notice, as he doesn’t move out of the way or tell Eddy off.

“ ** _I_ ** missed you, for what it is worth,” Sami supplies, beaming brightly at Eddy and elbowing Kevin when the statement earns him a glare from the moody bastard beside him.

“Aw, I’m touched. I can’t believe all the love I am on the receiving end of at the movement,” Eddy’s sweet smile twists into a slightly sarcastic one, “Now lets all get ready to go out there and kick the crap out of each other. For the **love** of it all.”

Kevin throws his hands up, tossing the tape into the air. Sami fumbles to catch it, squeaking in distress, though Kevin merely gives him an unimpressed look, leaning back up against the wall and eyeing the room with exasperation.

“You guys are so fucking weird with your friendly banter and your-”

Eddy makes a face down at Excess, who says nothing, just looks up at him briefly with an inscrutable look, handing him his knee pads without a word.

“Are we _actually_ still having _**this** _ conversation?” Eddy asks, looking slightly annoyed.

Sami shrugs, casting a look sideways at Kevin, who looks supremely miffed at having been cut off mid-rant.

“Sort of. I thought you got all the overly aggressive rage out of your system already,” Sami says, offering the tape back to Kevin, though he doesn’t take it, just giving Sami a comical pout and crosses his arms tighter, like a child refusing to eat their vegetables.

“Yeah, didn’t you two go and press you faces up against the glass at some wildlife preserve the other day? I would have though that all the cute baby animals did the trick,” Excess says, looking up from the bag briefly to shoot Kevin a questioning glance.

Sami can’t help the smile that encroaches upon his face, nor the fondness that wells in his chest as Kevin’s face lights up almost immediately, though no doubt against the other man’s will. At just the mere mention of their wonderful day at the zoo, Kevin’s eyes soften with something, that on anyone else, would be affection.

(Never gets old)

-Creepy-

(...shut **up** )

(is _not_ )

Kevin being _happy_ makes Sami **happy**.

There is nothing **_wrong_ ** with that.

Right?

“Listen, you can be as grumpy as you want, but we are all stuck here together for the next half hour until Hero and Dragon are finished bitch slapping each other, so we may as well kiss and make up,” Eddy says conversationally, flexing his arm, only wincing slightly at the motion, Sami notices.

“Exactly. You and Excess can kill each other when we get out there,” Sami adds brightly, not able to contain a giggle at the reflexive, almost panicked look that jumps to Eddy’s face at Sami’s words.

“I’d rather you _**didn’t**_ , if I’m honest-”

Excess, however, just laughs, eyeing Kevin with more than a little competitive delight in his eyes.

“You up for round two, kiddo?”

“I dunno, you think your old ass bag of bones can handle it?” Kevin snaps, his mouth curling up into a smile that is all teeth and snark.

Excess seems completely unfazed, delighted even, beaming at Kevin in response.

“Fuck yeah. I’ve got another few puffs in me. Just make sure you keep up, wouldn’t want you getting winded or anything.” Excess says merrily, rising from his crouched position only to sit back down next to Eddy. Eddy doesn’t interject anything, just hands Excess a water bottle and shares an amused eye roll with Sami.

-What is even...?-

(shhh)

(It’s **_cute_** )

“Is that a fuckn’ fat joke, you absolute piece of dick cheese?” Kevin growls glaring at Excess with the least threatening menace Sami has ever seen. In fact, if Sami didn’t know any better, he would say that there is a touch of humor in Kevin’s eyes as he gets into a barbed dual of insults with Excess.

(huh)

( _that_ is-)

“Aw, come on. There are so many more things I could make fun of you for, why would I make fun of you for being a fat fuck?” Excess says casually, winking at Kevin slyly and gesturing to Kevin's form like that explains anything.

Sami shakes his head, slightly confused and more than a little bristly, not sure if he should jump in and say something but sure that doing so would disrupt what appears to be a good time between friends.

When **_exactly_ ** Excess and Kevin became **friends** , Sami is unsure.

(Must have been a _hell_ of a match)

-No kidding-

“Oh that is rich, coming from the laziest, slowest, scrawniest douche to ever walk into a wrestling ring. You ever consider hoping up on the _top_ rope and doing something strenuous once and a fucking while?” Kevin carries on conversationally, at this point completely giving up the pretense that he is even mad.

Or even snarky for that matter.

The words coming out of Kevin's mouth, though combative in their vernacular, are completely benign in tone and intent.

-Pretty sure, anyway-

Sami surreptitiously leans up against Kevin, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. There is no detectable tension, and Kevin seems totally at ease and- _content_ , perhaps? **Happy** , if Sami dares to dream for such a thing. Kevin, of course, notices, because he _**always** _ notices, and leans, back, turning his head slightly to bump their cheeks together for a heart rending moment.

(oh)

“That is actually not a bad idea. How’d you like my moonsault? Better than yours, eh?” Excess says, turning and kicking his feet up onto the table, draping them across Eddy’s lap.

Sami stifles a laugh at Eddy’s disgruntled noise at being repurposed as a footstool.

Not that Eddy moves, or tosses Excess off of him, oddly enough.

Kevin inhales, his face still tilted towards Sami, his exhale ghosting over Sami’s shoulder. Sami reaches his foot forward, hooking it in the strap of his bag, pulling it towards him until he can grab in with out moving away from the contented man beside him. Before he can get into the duffel though, Kevin reaches down and pulls it way again, putting it on the other side of the bench, besides himself. Sami opens his mouth to protest, only to make an indignant squawk as Kevin takes the tape from his hands as well, eyeing Sami with a strangely smug look as he winds tape up his arm.

(if it was anyone other than Kevin, Sami would say that there was **playfulness** in Kevin’s dark eyes)

-Which is just...-

“It was alright. Needs more height though. Also, you suck at landing. Looked like you fucking broke your scrawny neck when you came down.”

Excess looks mildly chastised, coughing into his fist with a red tinge to his cheeks, “I, uh, fucked the trajectory up. I’ll squash your ass to the mat next time though, you’ll see. The scream the crowd let out was totally worth the neck ache later.”

Kevin chuckles, finally finishing taping up and handing the roll to Sami with a satisfied smirk. Sami just rolls his eyes, unable to contain his amused smile, shouldering Kevin amicably as he takes the tape.

“Addict,” Kevin states, indicating Excess accusingly, the towel in his hand held aloft like a judges gavel.

Excess shrugs unapologetically, smiling brightly with not a hint of regret on his face.

“Yeah. It’s a fucking _**rush**_.”

Eddy elbows Excess, looking at him with something that looks like amusement, but is clearly trying to be stern admonishment, “Hey. No stupid shit please. Can the two of you just calm down and let me have a nice return match, no death or maims included? Even if said death and/or maiming is for the enjoyment of our beloved fans?”

Sami raises an eyebrow at that, unable to help himself.

“You wrecked your own shoulder for the same reasons,” Sami points out, belatedly wondering why he is encouraging this.

(Because he probably should not be egging them on)

-You only live once-

Eddy holds up a finger, turning a giving Sami a exasperated look, though it is tinged with more than a little amusement, and Sami wonders if it is normal to have such a morbid conversation so casually, “Fair point. There is a distinct difference between doing something stupid to crush your opponent -or purely for the sake of the roar of the beast- and watching someone you care about doing the same or an entirely new stupid thing. One is very easy to do the other is a grueling slog of emotions.”

“Ug, are you assholes going to make me participate in one of your dumb ‘friendly matches’? Man, fuck you guys,” Kevin grumbles, though the resignation in his voice is palpable.

Which is odd, considering that he is the only one who has said such a thing.

-No one is _making_ him do anything-

(Not going to correct him)

After all, if Kevin needs an excuse to be friendly, if he needs to have a way out for the sake of his pride later, then Sami is more than willing to be that excuse.

-Just don't **say** any of that-

“Well,” Sami says, trying to be comforting, “At least you an Excess can compare moonsaults.”

**Author's Note:**

> Oh god, the stealth shipping. Wtf.
> 
> You guys don't even know how much I wanted to arbitrarily shove Chris Hero into this story (Hero is literally _never_ arbitrary) and no, I am not used to calling him Kassius Ohno. For obvious reasons. But alas, as much as I tried to twist the narrative around, this one wasn't about him *eternal sadness*
> 
> Which sucks, because Kevin could use some Big Brother Hero to come in and teach him a thing or two about not being a dumb emotionally repressed dork with all the subtlety of a eighteen wheeler in a small town square <3


End file.
